Rope rescue for injured ATV driver

A specialist rope rescue team was used to rescue a man who broke his neck rolling his ATV down a steep hill on Saturday.  The accident involved two ATVs that ended up rolling down a steep wooded embankmen.

The two drivers were at the back of a convoy of ATVs coming back from a day driving in the area at about 9 p.m. Because they were at the back of the pack, their vision was impaired by the dust and it is thought they missed a hairpin bend and went straight off the side.

Both vehicles rolled some way down the bank and were badly damaged. One of the drivers was able to walk out and raise the alarm, but the other was badly hurt, with a broken neck.

A couple of the other ATV drivers were trained in mine rescue, and scrambled down the hill to help stabilise the man and called the RCMP.

The RCMP called Search and Rescue at around 10 p.m. and members responded.

The rope rescue team used ropes to lower team members down to the man, who was then moved using a spine board onto a basket and hauled back up.

Search and Rescue have focused their recent fund-raising efforts on equipping and training a rope rescue team. The team became fully operational a couple of months ago, and this is the second time in a few weeks that the team has been used to rescue injured people from terrain that would be otherwise inaccessible for effective rescues.